Secondary
by lucy-starry-sky
Summary: An exploration of the other people who live in Atlantis. First up, Annabelle Simcoe. Second, Adam Metcalfe. Primary characters mentioned.
1. Annabelle Simcoe

**Title: Secondary - Annabelle Simcoe**

**Author: lucy-starry-sky**

**Summary: The only tragic thing about archaeological linguist, Annabelle Simcoe's life is probably how standard it is.**

**Rating: K+. (blink and you'll it reference to sex).**

**A/N : I love reading and writing about minority characters, just that kinda 'other details about Atlantis stuff'. So, I wrote about 5 stories and hopefully they are more will be posted on here. Enjoy. Spellchecked, but unbeta'd, therefore, I proudly declare that all mistakes and moments of poor quality are mine. If someone would like to beta it, or has any improvement ideas, drop me a line.**

**Word Count: 750**

**These characters aren't mine, no profits earned from this, etc.  
**

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The tragic thing about Annabelle Simcoe's life is probably how standard it is. 

Two parents: her father's a teacher and her mother's a home-maker. Older sister and younger brother, a doctor and a teacher respectively. She was gifted at school, not extraordinarily so, but enough to graduate a few years early and get started at the local college before accepting a fully paid accelerated scholarship to study history with a view to developed her thesis. Okay, so not completely standard but not actually that interesting either. The interesting part began for her when she arrived in Atlantis, on the second Daedalus drop. Of course, what this means is that her work and the geographical location of her work and home because interesting. She's still pretty much the same person.

Her hair is brown. She's neither thin or overweight, just a normal weight and height. She doesn't wear glasses, which makes her the exception to the rule in the historical archives department. Then again, with a total of 5 people in her department, plus the head, this is hardly an incredible feat.

Annabelle has been a vegetarian since watching her grandfather shoot wild pigs on his ranch as a little girl. However, since hearing stories about off-world sentient vegetables, she's considering becoming vegan. She's been off world twice and neither time was eventful :_ go through the gate, walk for hours to some ruins, take notes on and hopefully identify the writings left, take some more notes, be told by a marine that it's time to go back and walk back through the gate_.

She wears a blue shirt to work every day. It's surprisingly comforting to wear a uniform. She hated having to come up with daily outfits back on Earth.

She's currently single and sees no reason to change. Not to be mean but most of the civilians, men more specifically, on the mission are far too driven to focus on anything else. Relationship seems to be a dirty word. Then there's the marines, who apparently are good for a quick lay, but that's about it it, having so many rules and regulations. There's also the underlying boundary between the civilians and the military, as obvious as an elephant in the room but as silent as the city on the sea. There's no hostility between the two and don't get her wrong, she gets along with them just fine (some more than others) but there's just a …'thing' that says that the two groups can mix and be similar but will always be fundamentally opposite.

She's a archaeological linguist with a speciality for identifying, translating and categorizing unknown languages. She doesn't have to establish the entire language, that's David's job, she just has to look at it, relate it to something similar on earth, categorise it and remember it for future reference, in an attempt to help the rest of the history department work out the order of development of societies and culture in the Pegasus Galaxy.

Okay, a little exciting, a little more than standard.

Okay, she's a little extraordinary.

She's also the new proud owner of an ATA gene, less than 10 minutes ago. She's sitting on a bed in the infirmary, waiting for the blood results to come back to clarify just how strong it is in her. She thought she would feel different, maybe that could be her extraordinary thing but when just under 50 of the rest of the expedition have the same gene, it's not really a standout feature. Speaking of feeling though, she's feeling kinda funny. And hot. Not in a good way, but in an "I kinda can't breathe" way and the next thing she knows, she can't and she's on the down and wheezing and the world's closing in and someone's telling her to stay calm while they sort it out and there's this horrible pressure and it's all black.

And then it's still black but that's because she hasn't opened up her eyes. When she does, she's greeted by Dr Beckett checking that she's okay and she's still in the infirmary, only she's in a gown, in a bed and it's two days later.

"A nearly-catastrophic reaction to the gene. We had to engineer an antivirus to eradicate it out of your system but all's well now. Just need some rest and you'll be right as rain."  
She sighs and thanks him, says that in fact, she is quite tired.  
"You just settle back and rest then. You gave us a quite a scare you know – never had a reaction like that, the odds of that happening are one in a million".

Suddenly it clicks. She is extraordinary. Just not in the way she expected.

At least it's something.


	2. Adam Metcalfe

**Title: ****Secondary - ****Adam Metcalfe**

**Author: lucy-starry-sky**

**Summary: ****Adam Metcalfe had wanted to become a marine biologist as a child. Growing up surrounded by desert and canyons had put a stop to that**

**Rating: T. (references to sex and smoking- apparently that warrants an adult rating now ;) )**

**A/N : I love reading and writing about minority characters, just that kinda 'other details about Atlantis stuff'. So, I wrote about 5 stories and hopefully they are more will be posted on here. Enjoy. Spellchecked, but unbeta'd, therefore, I proudly declare that all mistakes and moments of poor quality are mine. If someone would like to beta it, or has any improvement ideas, drop me a line.**

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Adam Metcalfe had wanted to become a marine biologist as a child. Loved sea animals. In retrospect, it was probably watching _Flipper_ every afternoon after school that did it.

However, growing up in Las Vegas with desert and canyons all around made pursuing that dream kinda difficult so he became a meteorologist instead. There was a connection there somewhere, but yeah, he didn't see it either.

Vegas born and bred. In fact, the plane that he caught to get to Colorado to get to Atlantis was the first time he had ever left Vegas, save for a 3 day trip to Hollywood for a quickie vacation once that had been cut short by an appendicitis. Luck, you either have it or you don't and when you subscribed to the latter group, getting out of Vegas sooner rather than later seemed like a good idea. Still, it always interested people to hear that he actually lived there.

The glittering lights and fake, almost kitschy 'glamour' of the city had never really got him. Not like Atlantis had.

Vegas was fun for a vacation but living there was another thing entirely. The place was such a contradiction – look at the glitz and glamour, but it's all fake. Look at the way the city's so colourful and pretty at night, in the daytime it's flat, brown and almost depressingly boring. Atlantis on the other hand with it's subtle and graceful design and flowing features that were beautiful when lit up at night but during the day time took his breath away when the sunlight reflected off the water to make pretty patterns on his wall.

It was so different that he could hardly imagine ever seeing Vegas as 'acceptable' ever again but at the same time, he could see the similarities.

Too many people were led to Vegas with promises of glory and luck and chance and hope and riches. He sometimes considers that that's why they went to Atlantis – different riches but he hopes that unlike Vegas where all it offered were illusions, Atlantis would come though.

A health nut, he is strictly vegetarian and avoids caffeine, leaving him possibly the only capable human on Atlantis, besides Teyla, when the coffee supply ran out. His vices? Cigarettes and he sneaks them on his balcony every so often at night, watching the moonlight over the waves. All his life he was surrounded by desert and he loves the change in scenery. The only lights that surround him now are stars and reflections, subtle, playful and soothing.

For fun, he likes to play 'gay or not' in his head. _Zelenka? _Rumoured to be a total Casanova, he puts him in the "definitely" straight pile. Bates? Too uptight to have sex with anyone, straight by default. He'd had questions about Beckett until he heard about him and that pistol, Cadman. The sly dog, he grins to himself. Sheppard? Possibly, he thinks and files that one away for later contemplation.

Meteorology is a science but the meteorologist are not considered to be scientists by the scientists. Adam considers that it's probably McKay's disdainful nature that has turned the whole department treating them like unwanted visitors. He likes his boss, an older woman, Dr Wendy McArthurs, from South Africa. He likes to work hard, be correct, impress and so his boss likes him back.

One day, she approaches him about taking over the department as she's decided to not recommit to another contract here and for a moment, he wonders what she would do if he said no. He takes it, a pay rise and it's surprisingly less work. Downside, more meetings where he sits around and comments on the nature of the unpredictable and predictable weather patterns on their still-unnamed planet and possible energy sources that can be developed from that. His reports are short, brief and include enough details to back up what he's saying but no more and so his new boss, Dr Weir, likes him too.

He flirts with her a little, and she flirts back. Then he notices Sheppard in the background and he realises that he's stepping on someone else's territory and he backs off. This seems to suit Sheppard just fine, which in turn suits him just fine. Not making enemies is a good thing.

Then one night at an expedition celebration, a kind of "Still not dead" affair, he spots them having a vicious fight in the corner. He keeps on moving, and the night turns out well for him, ending up in some botanist's room. She's pretty, with big boobs and blonde curls. Later when he's walking back to his room when he spots Elizabeth Weir out on the balcony. It doesn't take a meteorologist to know that it's got to be almost freezing out there and it doesn't take much else to see that she is very drunk and he knows why. Not knowing where her room is or the door code and not wanting to draw attention to her state, he helps her back to his room, lets her sleep it off on his bed while he sleeps in a chair. His mother drilled chivalry into him, not that he would ever reveal that information to anyone. However, the next day, stories of her ending up his room flood the city and while they both know that nothing happened, it still doesn't stop Sheppard from trying to deck him the next time he's in the gym. He ducks quickly, thanking his quick reflexes and makes a point of avoiding him until the rumours blow over.

Which they do, a short time later. Soon it's back to normal and Adam can return to sitting on his balcony, lighting up as he stares over the ocean. There's no moon tonight but the view is still pretty. It suits his mood and he stays out all night.


	3. Gigi Motalussi

**Title: ****Secondary - Gigi Motalussi**

**Author: lucy-starry-sky**

**Summary: ****Giselle or Gigi Motalussi is the head of IT on the Atlantis base and is the only female in that department. **

**Rating: T. (references to (a) death, language (minor, like 2 words).**

**A/N : I love reading and writing about minority characters, just that kinda 'other details about Atlantis stuff'. So, I wrote about 5 stories and hopefully they are more will be posted on here. **** Enjoy. Spellchecked, but unbeta'd, therefore, I proudly declare that all mistakes and moments of poor quality are mine. If someone would like to beta it, or has any improvement ideas, drop me a line.**

**Word Count: ****800**

**N****o profits earned from this, etc.  
**

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Giselle or Gigi Motalussi is the head of IT on the Atlantis base and is the only female in that department. She's a born and bred Italian-New Yorker and admits that it shows. She's loud, despite her tiny physical size.

She's fluent in Italian, Greek, techno geek and English (and dirty) and is perfectly capable of swearing in all of them. In fact 'Gig' uses the "seven words you can't say on television" possibly more so than any other words. It puts some people off and she knows this but still doesn't change it. Devoutly Catholic, she joked that she and each of her 6 siblings were required to go to mass every Sunday regardless of anything else, "You could be fucking half-dead and as long as you were breathin', you'd be there. Then again, if you'd met my mama, you'd understand".

She's fast. She's solving problems before they're even detected, babbling instructions away at such a speed that she often has to repeat things multiple times for someone to make sense of them. It doesn't bother her.

Her fingers fly over the keys on the control consoles, her lips muttering instructions and coding to herself. Most assumed it was due to the copious amounts of black coffee she drank but when that supply ran out, she still didn't slow down.

She hates her full name and doesn't even really like to be referred to as "Doctor Motalussi", despite holding two PhD's in mathematics and computer technologies. A numbers-whiz and child prodigy, she had completed both theses by the age of 24, a little less than two years ago. She jokes that the only reason she got into computers was to design a spell-check wizard that was capable of sorting out "even her tragic attempts at spelling" – her greatest flaw is that while numbers and equations come naturally, without a spell-check program, her writing is hopeless. She once had a teacher ask her if she'd considered that she might have some kind of dyslexia. She still remembers her cheeks burning with embarrassment.

When offered the chance to participate in the program, Gigi hardly even paused before accepting but now, admittedly, there are things she misses, her family, her friends, her city, great bagels and coffee, shopping and restaurants. Her favourite way to the describe New York to the people that have never been there is that "it's the only place on Earth where, when you're there, it's like, you can't be anywhere else. Everything is so fuckin' New York. Everyone fits in there somehow and it just works and it's so fast and fabulous and beautiful. Even the bad parts are worth it". She's stunned when, upon explaining this to an Athosian who asked about her crazy New Jersey accent, he replied, "Like Atlantis". She's always considered the cities to be similar but now she can't think of them any other way. Like she is New York, she is Atlantis and the thought of departing leaves her breathless.

She doesn't have the ATA gene. Not through a lack of trying. She's been back for three rounds of testing and…. nothing. Nada. No gene. She pretends it doesn't bother her but it sometimes makes her feel like she doesn't belong, when the systems occasionally don't respond to her touch like they do for others.

She's efficient and only argues when she truly believes that something is not right. Occasionally, she's asked to join in projects run by the science teams, having experience in that area as well. She's possibly the only person whom McKay really doesn't have a problem with – she does what she's told to do and often, is doing what he wants her to do before he even says it. It might also be that she lets him check her out without any complaints. It's easier that way.

She manages a group of 10 people, whose job it is to maintain and fix the earth-based and Atlantis based computer systems, including networks, consoles and database systems. She encouraged them to become very close at first, with many team nights and members training each other when necessary and it's paid off because it is the only sector that has no people return to Earth. Gigi fitted in with the guys and it just worked.

When Atlantis was invaded a second time, Gigi was shot twice in the chest and placed on life-support for two days before it was switched off, one of only six casualties. A few of her team-mates and friends were sent back with her body, to Earth and many felt it was the only way she would have ever returned there. The silence in the IT sector was almost palpable, and painful and it would be some time before the space that the "pint-sized powerhouse" had left behind could be forgotten.


End file.
